Season Ending Injuries Bring Huskies TogetherHubbard and Cuevas Both Suffer Season Ending Injuries

Julie Hubbard

Oct. 3, 2011

By Mia Klein

"I knew what happened right away," University of Connecticut soccer player Julie Hubbard (Waverly, Penn.) explained about tearing her left ACL for the second time in her career. Hubbard, a highly anticipated junior transfer from Penn State, was finally getting into her groove when the injury occurred in a matchup versus Harvard on September 11. At the time of the injury, Hubbard was leading the Big East in shots per game and tied in overall points per game.

"I felt like the wind was taken out of my sails, but I knew I couldn't dwell on it and needed to move on and think about next season," Hubbard explained about her injury. Hubbard explained that she was "rehabbing everyday and working on getting better every day so I can be ready for next season."

Hubbard though has a teammate to share the road to recovery with. Top rated freshman recruit Gabriella Cuevas (Wayne, NJ.) shared Hubbard's pain when she too, went down with a season-ending ACL tear. Her injury though occurred just seven minutes into the first regulation game of the season.

Cuevas was a top ranked freshman defender from the class of 2015 and one of Connecticut's highly anticipated freshman recruits.

Cuevas has turned this negative situation into something positive, saying how she thinks the injury was a "blessing in disguise."

"I had to pick from a lot of schools to play soccer at and having this injury happen has been a real test to see how much the team and coaches support me and it's made me realize how much I love this school and team," Cuevas explained.

Both Cuevas and Hubbard explained how they have been using this injury to not only work on bettering themselves off the field as players, but also on helping their teammates on the field as well. "I look for little tips to share with players during the game that the coaches don't normally see," Cuevas stated. "I just try to be there for support for the girls."

The UConn players need all the support they can get as they currently face a four game road trip all against fellow Big East conference members. The Huskies are currently 5-5-2 with five games left in the regular season.